Jungle Girl
by ashhead
Summary: Alex and Shannon discuss boys.


_A/N- This is a silly little fic that was written to a Secret Santa request: for something about Alex and Shannon._

The blonde girl had gone, Alex had seen her slip into the jungle with Sayid. She hadn't realised they were together until then, and the discovery intrigued her. She couldn't imagine what he could ever see in Shannon's arrogance and shallowness. Sure, she was pretty, there was no denying that, that was what Alex was here for, but she'd thought that Sayid had more depth to him than that. It had been his calm and his compassion that had led her to escape the others with him to the beach. Still, there was no denying that personality wasn't the only thing men looked for in their women, and Shannon's success at seducing Sayid only spurred Alex on.

Breaking into Shannon's tent, especially for something as trivial as make-up and a mirror, was particularly ridiculous. Alex knew this, but since the idea had formed in her head a week ago, she hadn't been able to shake it. He hadn't taken any notice of her despite her increasingly pathetic attempts to be around him, so something else was needed. Claire and Shannon both had men falling over themselves to help them, and Alex couldn't see anything different between them and herself except for the fact that they looked smart. Makeup hadn't been part of daily life with the others, but then neither had he, so she was unsure of herself on all grounds.

At first she'd thought she might try getting something from Claire. Claire had been lovely to her, whilst the rest of the group were suspicious of her, Claire had made sure that she was ok and that she had enough to eat. Shannon, meanwhile, was amongst the worst, turning her nose up every time Alex came near as if she was a bad smell. So Claire had seemed the best bet. But there were always people at Claire's tent. Stuck right in the middle of the camp, it was everyone's main stop on the way to everywhere else. Even if she had managed to build up the courage to broach the subject of borrowing some makeup and a hairbrush, Claire seemed never to be alone. So Alex had had to give up on that idea, which only left Shannon.

Talking to Shannon was impossible, the girl hated her already and she hadn't even spoken to her; so stealing was pretty much the only option she had left. She felt guilty about stealing from the people that had taken her in, but then again Shannon wasn't one of those people, and it wasn't as if she hadn't stolen from her adoptive family before. Shannon's tent was pitched away from the main camp; Alex guessed partly to aid her late night encounters with Sayid; which made it all the more easy to get into.

Stealing across the sand silently, as the others had taught her to do, she slipped into Shannon's tent without even looking around herself. She knew no one else was coming, she'd been preparing this all day, and she was too good to second-guess herself. Shannon had left her stuff in a mess across her bed, probably sure that her multitude of male admirers would prevent anyone from even thinking about taking any of it. Smiling to herself, she picked up the hand mirror, wanting to see what she had to work with. What she saw in the mirror was not her own reflection, instead it was Shannon's bronzed face screwed up in outrage.

"Oi, jungle girl. What the hell do you think you are doing?" Shannon's voice was shrill, making Alex want to cringe.

"I was just…" Alex trailed off, not sure what answer to give.

Shannon's face was screwed up into an ugly mask, sneering and threatening as she prepared to scream her outrage. But that suddenly disappeared into a sunny smile, making Alex even more unsure of herself.

"Ah. So who is it?" When Alex didn't respond immediately, Shannon continued, "That is why you're here isn't it? To make yourself pretty for someone? So who is it."

Alex coloured rapidly, embarrassed that Shannon had seen through her so quickly. Maybe Shannon wasn't quite as vapid as Alex had thought. Still, she wasn't going to embarrass herself further by admitting who it was that had spurred her to do this.

"Well!" Shannon demanded an answer, but was still met with silence. "Ok," it was a challenge, and Alex could feel Shannon rising to it. She was chewing her lower lip and had removed a strand of hair from behind her ear to twist in her fingers.

"It's not Sayid." Shannon said that without hesitation, and Alex couldn't help but smiling at her confidence in it. She was right though, it wasn't Sayid; if anything he had become a pseudo-father figure to Alex, and he certainly wasn't the object of her affection. So she shook her head, unable to help being drawn into Shannon's game.

Shannon smiled at this response, "It won't be Jack either," she gave Alex an appraising look, "He's too old."

Alex giggled at the idea of Jack. Old was probably the best thing that could be said about the man, he was completely self-obsessed, living in his own little reality where everyone bowed down to him. It certainly wasn't Jack.

Seeing Alex warm up a little, Shannon started to go through the pots on her bed, trying to decide what would look best on Alex. "It better not be Sawyer, Kate would scratch your eyes out. She might look sweet, but she's got one hell of a vicious streak. If it's Sawyer, you're best just to forget it, it's not worth it."

Alex could well imagine that, Kate seemed nice enough, but she'd heard some of her records mentioned whilst she was with the others, and she knew what the girl was capable of. Besides, Kate had kept Sawyer occupied enough that Alex had barely seen him since she'd been here. They seemed to emerge at mealtimes, and that was about it. "No," Alex murmured, still slightly embarrassed.

Pleased with getting a verbal response, Shannon started to apply a pale gold eyeshadow to Alex's eyes, ignoring her protests and attempts to wriggle out of Shannon's grasp.

"So…" Shannon tried to goad Alex into revealing who had caught her eye, but was once again met with silence. Rolling her eyes, she opened the mascara. "Is it Charlie then? Or Hurley?"

Alex shook her head to both, earning her a smudging of mascara across her cheek and Shannon's rather exasperated protestations. Charlie and Hurley were both sweet, they made her laugh when she was hit the enormity of what she had done by leaving the people who had raised her. But Charlie was smitten with Cla, geire, that had been ridiculously obvious even when she had first met him, and she liked Claire too much to even consider him. And even if Hurley wasn't involved with Libby, Alex thought of him too much like a big brother.

Pouring a tiny amount of water onto a cloth, Shannon cleaned the smudge off Alex's face. "It's my brother, then, isn't it? God's friggin' gift to humanity, here to save us all."

Alex turned painfully red, her shoulders falling forward and her head lowering from Shannon's grasp.

"It is," Shannon exclaimed, gleeful at finding who it was, even if it was her brother. "You do know he's a loser, don't you?"

"He's not," Alex protested vainly, before realising that Shannon had said that to get a response from her. "He's not," she repeated, wanting Shannon to believe that.

"Whatever," back to being vapid, shallow Shannon, now that she'd got what she wanted. She handed Alex the mirror so that she could see the end result.

Alex's smile was infectious as she surveyed Shannon's work. She threw her arms around the older girl, who was trying desperately, and failing, to keep her face disinterested. "Thank you."

Pushing Alex off her, Shannon sighed dramatically. "Whatever, jungle girl. Just don't come into my tent again, ok?"

Alex nodded, slightly wounded by Shannon's indifference.

Seeing this, Shannon rolled her eyes, annoyed that Alex's wounded deer eyes could get to her. "He's chopping wood, in case you wanted to know."

Alex perked up immediately, a brilliant smile spreading across her face. A yelled thank you caught Shannon's ears as Alex bounded out of the tent, leaving a bemused Shannon in her wake.


End file.
